New details are emerging in the case of a toddler rescued from a hot car in a Merriam parking lot last month.

A passerby saw the 2-year-old girl in the back of the car, crying and drenched in sweat. People broke the car window to free the girl, who is expected to be OK.

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The temperature on the day of the incident was 91 degrees and the heat index was another 10 degrees higher than that.

The website for the group Kids and Cars said that not all children will recover from such an experience. In an average year, 37 children every year die after being left in hot cars. Many others will suffer brain damage.

“The inside of a vehicle acts like a greenhouse, so it lets in that heat through the windows and it traps the heat in very quickly,” said Amber Rollins of Kids and Cars. “In fact, two-thirds of the increase in temperatures happen in the first 10 minutes.”

Court documents obtained by KMBC 9 News show the girl’s aunt and uncle told police they had only left the girl in the car for a few minutes. Police said they determined that the toddler had been in the car at least 19 minutes.

Mylesha and Marques Anderson had been in a cellphone store and told police they forgot the girl was in the back seat. Both are charged with aggravated endangerment of a child.

A parent or driver can forget that a small child is in the back seat of a car if that child is quiet or the driver is thinking about other things.

Rollins said one way to remember that a child is in the car is to keep a stuffed animal inside and move it to a front seat whenever the child is there. The idea is that if the toy is in the front seat, a child is in the back.

“The main idea is to look before you lock,” she said. “You never know, you might save a life.”